Alas, It Speaks

Title: Little TalksFandom: ST:XIPairing: Spock/McCoyRating: GWarnings: mpreg, au, telepathy, insecurity, sneezes, and cuteness.Notes:Merry Christmas! :D This fic is part of Tserillian!verse. The last fic was dedicated to antesqueluz because it was their birthday. This one is dedicated to everyone, because Christmas. And also you guys are way too patient with me. (There’s a bit of a movie reference in here. Kudos to whoever catches it. ;D)

Summary: Before Joanna leaves for school, she needs some reassurance.

“What if they don’t like me?” Joanna asks, her face buried in Leonard’s side, not long before she goes to stay with Sarek and attend school on the Vulcan colony.

“They will, pumpkin, I promise.”

“But what if they don’t?”

Leonard sighed. “Well if they don’t – and remember that’s a big if – if they don’t, then you hold your head up and think to yourself, ‘My name is Joanna McCoy and there’s nobody in the world better than me’.”

“Vulcans are faster,” Joanna says. Leonard could hear the pout in her voice. “And they’re stronger, and I’m just one girl with no mommy.”

“You got me and Spock and Grandpa Sarek. You know what would happen to anyone who was mean to you when Grandpa Sarek was around? He’d shoot them into space. Naked.”

That gets a smile.

“Do you think the baby will like me too?”

That was getting closer to the heart of it. Joanna picks at the fabric of Leonard’s tunic, right over the swell of the baby. He’s tried his best to get her used to the idea, and to keep her from getting insecure. For the most part she’s taken it well.

“You’re the best little girl I know.” Leonard pulls her up so he can look her in the eye. “You’re pretty, you’re smart, and you have manners to make Aunt Nyota proud. Anyone who didn’t like you would be an idiot.”

“Daddy, you can’t call the baby an idiot!”

“Guess they like you then. I knew they would.”

“Daddy!”

She sighs dramatically, but she’s happy, he can tell. He tickles her, then walks to the door with her standing on his feet. The best girl he knew needed a snack.

It comes up again the night before she goes. She crawls between him and Spock on the bed in the middle of the night, accidentally landing a knee on his kidneys.

“Daddy,” she breathes into his face, and Leonard rolls over so she’s sitting on his chest. “Daddy what if the baby doesn’t remember me?”

“What?” Leonard asks, because it’s the middle of the night and he’s just been pulled out of a dream where he was wandering the desert with some sort of mutant bear.

“I’m going away,” Joanna whines, and Spock twitches awake. “What if when I get back the baby doesn’t remember me?”

“They’ll remember you sweetie, I promise.”

“But what if they don’t?” Joanna says, and she honestly looks like she’s going to cry.

“Aw, hun….” It takes a bit of effort, but Leonard repositions them so he’s sitting up and both of her hands are pressed against his stomach. “Did you know I can read minds?”

Joanna frowns. “But you’re not a Vulcan.”

“It’s different kind of reading minds. Spock knows I can do it to; don’t you Spock?”

“Your father is indeed a telepath.” Spock’s voice is soft and steady, and Joanna looks between them with startled eyes.

“Can you read my mind, too?”

“I can read your mind, and Spock’s mind, and you know what? I can read the baby’s mind, too.”

“No you can’t!”

“I sure can.” It’s mostly true. There’s not much of a mind to read yet, but the baby’s already picked up an awareness of the minds it’s in frequent contact with. It reacts to familiar minds in a way that makes Leonard want to sneeze. “If you don’t believe me, ask Spock.”

Joanna gives Spock a suspicious look.

“Jojo, look at me.” Leonard shifts their hands to the place where the baby is sitting. “It already knows who you are. It’s even trying to say hello.” Another stretch of the truth; its reacting to Joanna’s closeness, but it’s also sort of…asleep. If there are any upsides to Joanna’s lack of telepathic ability, it’s that she can’t tell the difference between a sleeping telepathic fetus and an awake one.

Joanna cocks her head as if trying to hear the baby speak in her head, forehead wrinkling in concentration. “I can’t hear it.”

“It’s just a baby, it’s not very loud. But you know what? It knows who you are, and it’s always very happy to see you. And even if you’re far away, as soon as you walk up and say hi, it’s going to know who you are. It’s gonna read your mind and say, ‘That’s my favorite sister! I haven’t seen her in so long!’ And sweetheart, it’s gonna be really happy to see you. I promise.”

He lets Joanna digest this. After a moment, her head still tilted to the side, Joanna’s brow furrows in concentration.

Leonard raises his eyebrows. “What on earth are you doing?”

“Saying hi to the baby,” Joanna says, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “I can talk a lot louder than it can.”

And even as Leonard feels a sharp pang at the thought that his daughter couldn’t communicate with her sibling like he and Spock could, he feels a spike in the baby’s awareness. He sneezes.

“Did it work?”

“I believe it did,” Spock states, completely deadpan.

Leonard sneezes again, fighting down touch of irritation. He’s going to hate sneezing through the rest of this pregnancy.

Joanna beams. “I told it I loved it and I was gonna be the best big sister ever. Did it hear that too?”

Leonard manages to fight off another sneeze. “I’m pretty sure it did. I think the two of you have talked enough for tonight.”

“But I got so much to say!”

“You can say it in the morning, before we beam down.”

Joanna huffs, flopping onto his chest. “Daddy…”

“Goodnight, ko-fu.”

Joanna sighs, giving in more quickly to Spock than to Leonard. “G’night, Sa-mekh. Can I sleep here?”

“Only if you promise not to say anything else to your sibling tonight.”

“I promise!” she says quickly, sliding off of Leonard to settle into the space between her two parents. “Night night, Daddy. Tell the baby I said night-night too.”

Leonard rolls his eyes. “Sure thing, your highness.”

Then he kisses her on the forehead and pulls the covers up to her shoulders. Even with heat pouring off Spock, there was a chance she could get cold.